I spend a depressing amount of time explaining the relationships between Oracle marketing brands, products, product families, versions, and patchsets to customers as well as internal Oracle staff. You're confused too? Don't worry, you're not
alone. Here's a cheatsheet for the things I spend the most time explaining:

Well, it's Oracle's flagship product, so if I need to describe it, we're in real trouble. This includes the Real Application Clusters (RAC) feature. Everyone
frequently confuses the Database with the Application Server products. If someone says, "10gR2," the chances are pretty good that they're talking about the database, but it's always safe to verify that.

The next-generation of our integrated enterprise resource planning suite, representing the convergence of Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and perhaps even more to come.

Also Known As: Project Fusion, Fusion Apps

Applications Unlimited

This term officially refers to the lifetime support program for Oracle's applications product lines, including E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft Enterprise, Siebel, JD Edwards
EnterpriseOne, JD Edwards World, Hyperion Performance Management, Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, Agile Product Lifecycle Management, AutoVue Enterprise Visualization, and Oracle Fusion Applications. This term is sometimes incorrectly used
to refer to all of these products as a group -- it's not a "group," it's a formal program with support and release implications).

Also Known As: Apps Unlimited, AU

E-Business Suite Release and Patch Naming Conventions

"Product Families" Groups of applications modules that are functionally related. For example, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Chart of Accounts are members of the Financials
product family.

"Emergency Patch" (a.k.a. interim patches) A patch containing a fix for a specific bug for a specific product. For example, Order Management might release patch
3968068 to fix a very tightly-defined bug. Some emergency patches are released to fix a cluster of interrelated bugs.

"Product Family Patchset" A collection of product mini-packs for a specific, individual product family.
For example, fixes for Payroll, Benefits, and Training Administration would be released together in a Human Resources Suite Product
Family Patchset called 11i.HR_PF.K. New features are not supposed to be included in product family patchsets, but it happens. This is sometimes also called a Rollup Patchset, or RUP (see below).

"Recommended Patch List" A list of individual patches for a specific product family that you should have applied. These lists might include recommended emergency
patches as well as product mini-packs. If a product family recommends a patch via these lists, it's usually a very good idea to heed that.

"Critical Patch Collection" This term was introduced for the EBS 12 codeline. It includes the latest patches from the Recommended Patch List for a single EBS 12 product family. If a product family (e.g. Financials)
releases a new Critical Patch Collection, it's usually a very good idea to apply it at your earliest convenience.

"Maintenance Packs" A comprehensive collection of all of the latest product family patchsets and new features. For example, the 11.5.10.2
Maintenance Pack includes product family patchsets for Financials, Procurement, HR, Supply Chain, and everything else in the E-Business Suite.

"Consolidated Updates" A large collection of all of the latest EBS 11i recommended patch lists, including new features. Released after a maintenance pack, such as the Consolidated
Update for 11.5.10. This term is used only for EBS 11i. The EBS 12 equivalent term is "Release Update Pack."

"Release Update Packs" A large collection of all of the latest EBS 12 recommended patch lists, including new features. This term is used only for EBS 12. The EBS 11i equivalent term is "Consolidated Update."

"Technology Stack Updates" Any combination of patchsets or mini-packs that change the underlying services that
product families depend upon. For example, the latest Applications Technology Family Pack is released in 11i.ATG_PF.H.

Generally, fixes to functional applications products like iReceivables don't require changes to the E-Business Suite technology stack, and vice versa. There are exceptions to that, of course, but that's our general strategy.

"RUP" This one's a bit confusing since this term is used and abused in varying ways even internally within the E-Business Suite division. Bear with me on this:

Remember that in the E-Business Suite Release 11i timeframe, a given product team (e.g. the Applications Technology Group) would release a Product Family Patchset that includes all previously-released patches, emergency patches, and new features.
This was often called a Rollup Patchset, or RUP.

In the E-Business Suite Release 12 timeframe, the term "Release Update Pack" is being used in place of "Consolidated Updates". R12 Release Update Packs combine patches created across several E-Business Suite product
families. Given the way neologisms form, these became referred to in shortened form as "RUPs" too.

Still with me? In EBS 11i, RUP referred to a single product family patchset, while in EBS 12, RUP generally refers to a consolidated update spanning multiple products. Now brace yourself. Here's the confusing part:

In EBS 12, we're also still releasing product family patchsets, and -- wait for it -- they're sometimes called rollup patchsets, too. These R12 rollup patchset references will invariably be shortened to RUP, too. So, there are two definitions
of "RUP" even within the R12 codeline.

Tip: If someone refers to a RUP in your presence, make sure that you clarify whether it's a "Release Update Pack" or a "Rollup Patchset." The difference between the two is vast.

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases

Applications 10.7 Network Computing Architure (10.7 NCA)

Applications Release 11

11.0.3

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i

11.5.1 - 11.5.10

11.5.10 Consolidated Update 1, 11.5.10.CU1 or 11.5.10.1

11.5.10 Consolidated Update 2, 11.5.10.CU2 or 11.5.10.2

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12

12.0.0

12.0.1

12.0.2

12.0.3

12.0.4

12.0.5 (HRMS and Financials only)

12.0.6

12.0.7 (HRMS only)

12.0.8 (HRMS only)

12.1.1

12.1.2

12.1.3

Oracle Application Server 10g Releases

OracleAS 10g Release 1 (10gR1)

Version 9.0.4.0

Version 9.0.4.1

Version 9.0.4.2

OracleAS 10g Release 2 (10gR2)

Version 10.1.2.0.0

Version 10.1.2.0.2

Version 10.1.2.1

OracleAS 10g Release 3 (10gR3)

Version 10.1.3

Oracle Database Server Releases

Oracle 8i

Oracle 9i Release 2 (9iR2)

9.2.0.7

9.2.0.8

Oracle 10g Release 1 (10gR1)

10.1.0.4

10.1.0.5

Oracle 10g Release 2 (10gR2)

10.2.0.2

10.2.0.3

10.2.0.4

Oracle 11g Release 1 (11gR1)

11.1.0.6

11.1.0.7

Patch Compatibility and Certification Matrix

Here's where I lose the three remaining readers of this post.

Only specific versions of Oracle products work together. It's critical to check whether a specific patch works with your configuration.

It's a tricky system to use, but the final word on all supported configurations is captured in a massive database called Certify. To access this system, log on to MetaLink
and click the Certify tab in the upper-right corner.

It's easy to get lost in Certify, and it's sometimes very hard to get an answer to a simple question. If you get stuck, the best route is to log a Service Request and let an Oracle Support Engineer wade through the Certify database for you.

A Simplified Version of Certify

Certify is the official repository for all Oracle certifications. It's tricky to use, so you may find a simplified summary of all E-Business Suite technology stack certifications useful. Hit the "Certifications" link in the menubar
above, or just navigate to it directly here:

"Product Families" Groups of applications modules that are functionally related. For example, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Chart of Accounts are members of the Financials product family.

Chan,

Thank you very much for invaluable information you are giving to us (oracle user’s community). It is rare from my experience to see that type of consistent and useful information coming from Oracle. I wish oracle would have more employees like you.
.
Have got few questions connected to your post, Oracle Apps “Product Families��? and “Product Family Patchsets��?
.
Just wonder, is there more or less easy way to identify to which Family particular module belongs?
Or let me as the same question differently: Is there a list of modules for a particular Product family available some there?
.
From my Oracle Apps DBA experience I have found difficult for risk analysis purposes to identify impact of “Product Family Patchsets��? installation. From my side it sounds reasonable before installation to identify which modules to which version will upgrade particular PF Patchset. Then compare spotted modules versions with versions we have got in the particular environment and generate a list of modules and versions that would be relevant for a particular environment.
I believe this process would help to plane testing activities that have to be executed during upgrade projects.
Let take “Oracle HRMS Family Pack K��? from readme it isn’t clear which modules this PF patches is upgrading to which versions. The only way I know at the moment is to install PF patchset in technical test environment and run SQL against fnd%install%product tables in upgraded environment and in production.

It would be more then appreciated if you can comment on those questions.
Thank you in advance,
Yury

Yury, thanks for the feedback; please feel free to share the news about this blog with your colleagues if you find it useful.As far as I'm aware, there is no straightforward means of taking a specific product and traversing "up the tree" to figure out which product family it belongs to.&nbsp; I agree that this would be useful, and will ask internally whether we have information we can publish on this.It sounds like you've taken a manual approach to a task that's automated for you by one of our existing tools.&nbsp; The best way of performing a risk analysis for a specific patch is to use the Patch Wizard to perform a Patch Impact Analysis.&nbsp; The Patch Wizard is an enhanced version of the Patch Advisor.&nbsp; The Patch Impact Analysis will tell you which products are affected by a given patch, as well as the specifics of which files are new, changed, and ignored.&nbsp; For details about the latest Patch Wizard, see:Oracle Applications Maintenance Utilities 11.5.10Regards,Steven

Patch Wizard ��? it is nice feature, but unfortunately as with all new Oracle products it isn’t ready for use in real world :( . I wish I have chance to discuss with somebody from Oracle Development what is missing there to allow us - Oracle Apps DBA to use it.
.
So far we manual risk analysis is only way to go (We are on 11.5.10.2 ;)
.
Thank you for that you are doing,
Yury

Problems using Patch Wizard (OAM H/11.5.10.2/About Oracle Applications Manager Version 2.3.1):
-- If patch file already exist in the Staging area, patch wizard downloads it again in spite of the patch already exist. We have ~8 environments (tests, prelive, live etc). It make sense to have the same Staging area for all of them and download patches once and then use those for all environments.

-- Patch Wizard comes with incorrect recommendations. In our example “Patch Wizard��? recommended to install patches which have been included in the Maintenance Packs already installed in our system.

--- Impact analysis doesn’t say THIS module version is 11i.GL.H and a patch will bring you up to 11i.GL.J, there 2 versions between those versions (be careful).

--- It would be absolutely fantastic in the “Patch Impact Analysis��? “Applications Patched��? screen to exclude modules which are “Inactive��? in our system. It doesn’t make sense to analyze unsused modules.

--- “Patch Impact Analysis��? “Applications Patched��? in general there is lock of efficient navigation. For example if you would like to know what is the impact on GL module I need to look through all modules by 15 a time and look for the GL module manually, instead of put the module name in search field (there is no any) and navigate to GL straight away.

--- Would be good to group modules by family packs. So that responsible person could look only on modules that applicable to area of responsibilities (FIN, HRMS, CRM etc).

---If analyzed patch already installed Oracle doesn’t reflects any results (no row appears on the “Patch Wizard : &lt;ENV>��? screen). Instead of that it would be more useful to come with statement “All files already installed in you environment. You do not need to install anything��?.

-- “Recommend/Analyze Patches��? -> “Job Status��? screen. It isn’t clear which CR is responsible for. It would be good to have indication that this CR is analyzing that and that patch or producing that recommendations.

--- After analyzing request have finished a row with results on the “Patch Wizard : &lt;ENV>��? screen appears with time delay (some times doesn’t appears at all). It isn’t clear that triggering the result row to appear on the main screen.

--- In “Patch Impact Analysis��? modules list screen, would be great to have ability to see whole list not just 15 modules at the time.

Two Recommendations:
- Describe better that is behind ideas of “Patch Wizard��? functionality. I would say describe HOW DBA (an all involved key users) suppose to use it to make efficient and competed impact analysis. There is lock of official recommendations from Oracle how to make enormously complicated impact analysis process.
- Invite at least one real Oracle Apps DBA and get feed back from him constituently. Person has to be responsible for patching in real live and have to be interested.

I am enormously glad that there is Steven in Oracle who is ready to work with end users of Oracle software.

PS The issues listened above is just part that I would like to tell about “Patch Wizard thing��?. If somebody interested I can discuss those things further.
PPS Sorry for my language. I know

As I promised in my previous post I am providing some examples of inappropriate Patch Wizard analysis results:

A. AT Patch level 11i.ATG_PF.H

We have been requested to apply patch 5108220 in our LIVE environment.
Mentioned patch was released at 22-MAR-2006. We were 100% that we did have it in our environment.
Have submitted Analyze Patche request.
After request had been processed, a new line didn’t appeared in the Results window.
Patch 5108220 README we found that it need patch 4752028 to be applied as prerequisite for that patch.
Patch Wizard –filed complicity to analyze impact of patch 5108220.

Yury, thanks for the detailed case study.&nbsp; I appreciate the amount of specific details that you've provided, which gives us something substantive to work with.I've asked our Patch Wizard team to take a look at this post and comment, if possible.Regards,Steven&nbsp;

Hi, Yury,Sorry for the delay in responding to this.&nbsp; Our Patch Wizard team is a bit backlogged right now.&nbsp; I just chatted with the group's manager, and she'll be taking a look at this thread as soon as possible.&nbsp; Thanks for your patience.Regards,Steven&nbsp;

&gt;&gt; Sorry for the delay in responding to this.No problem at all. It isn't you who have no time.&gt;&gt; Our Patch Wizard team is a bit backlogged right now.Or by other words there are not enough resources to developer ready for usage module.&nbsp; It is a shame isn't it? Then one team relaying on "mega module" functionality disabling a prereq option by default, but other have no time to develop the "mega module" in right way :(Just my 0.02Â£PS Steven you can be a good example how to develope a good product for your caliginous in the "Patch Wizard" team.

We had similar problems with Patch Wizard making silly suggestions, along with individual patches that insist you apply a specific prerequisite, even if that prerequisite was included in another patchset that you have already applied.

On general question I had in regards to the different types of patches is this: I was always under the impression that a MP Patch (such as 11.5.10.2) includes all the Family Pack patches available at a particular point in time. Now, if I choose to apply those Family Packs seperately, I should functionally have the same system as if it was 11.5.10.2, even though I may still be on 11.5.9.

As an example, start with 11.5.9, then apply ATG_PF.H, followed by the ATF_PF.H.RUP3. That brings the ATG Family Pack up to an 11.5.10.2 equivalent. Then, I apply HRMS Pack K, Financials Pack G, Service Pack K, Projects Pack M. That puts those modules on higher versions than 11.5.10.2.
Following on, Oracle support asks us in a TAR what version of Apps 11i we are using. If we go to "Help -> About Oracle Applications..." in the Navigator screen, it still happily says "11.5.9". This confuses Oracle Support and they end up telling us that certain things are not possible in our environment because "that feature is only included in 11.5.10".

So, the ultimate question...when does the version number actually change? What determines when the version of the core app should be increased to reflect the installed patchsets?

Hi, Paul,Here's a response from the Patch Wizard development team:&lt;snip&gt;Yes, it does seem like in theory if you applied the same set of Family Packs
that's present in a Maintenance Pack the end result is the same as applying the
Maintenance Pack.&nbsp; This is mostly true, but not 100% true because MPs tend to
contain fixes to issues found when testing them.The Maintenance Pack
level (overall version of Oracle Apps) is only changed when you apply an actual
Maintenance Pack.&nbsp; There is no special logic that recognizes that a certain set
of Family Packs is &gt;= a given Maintenance Pack level and updates the MP
level.Yes, it can be confusing to describe to Support what version of
Oracle Apps you have.&nbsp; This is a consequence of the fact that we release
functional updates in Maintenance Packs, Family Packs, Minipacks, and even in
one-off patches.&nbsp; On the plus side customers can uptake new functionality in
smaller bundles than major releases (Maintenance Packs).&nbsp; On the minus side it
can be complex to describe what functionality you really have unless you only
apply Maintenance Packs.&lt;/snip&gt;Regards,Steven

Great article as usual. We are utilizing the patch wizard with great results but only have the core financials installed which makes the output a lot simpler than the cases above. I've been pushing to get all of our Federal extensions input into the wizard so that we'll also know when one of these is touched by a patch.

One more clarification you might want to add based on the comments so far. Many Apps DBAs think that when you apply the latest ATG patch, you're on the latest version of the Apps. That's incorrect. You are on the latest version of the Applications Technology Group which is a Family Pack of technology based components. It's only when you apply the CU2 that the 11.5.9 or .8 is updated. And there are many product family packs that are not included in CU2 due to timings, length of testing, etc. These family packs should be installed on top of the CU2 for the correct codeset and database objects for the modules in use.

Also, many DBAs believed that the CU2 had all of the latest Product Family Packs. That may have been true when it went into testing but not anymore. At least 8 Product Family Packs are out of date and may need to be applied depending on the modules in use.

We are current on our ATG and Financial Family packs, mini-packs and CPU patches. After the latest java issues with the patch wizard, it's working fairly well although we do get some of the issues outlined above. It will be nice when patching rolls into AMP...:-))

Great article as always. Can't wait for 12.1...:-) I'll be at one of the kick-offs...:-)

Its not quite true to say that EBS 11i is certified with database 11i if you happen to be running EPB (as we are) unless the situation has changed in the last few days and you have sorted the bugs in this area without telling me ?

EBS 11i *is* certified with the 11gR1 Database. However, as you've correctly pointed out, there is a documented product-specific exception for EPB. EPB customers are being advised to hold off on the 11gR1 upgrade until those issues are resolved, but customers who aren't using EPB can safely upgrade to this latest database version.

I know that the EPB team has contacted you directly with a rather-troubling statement about their plans for this certification. I am still trying to get to the bottom of that; please stay tuned. I'll follow up with you privately on that.

reading that " there is no straightforward means of taking a specific product and traversing "up the tree" to figure out which product family it belongs to" is a bit shocking.

Oracle specifies for example in the explanation of the extended support for the EBS R11 that you can patch per familiy. If you don't patch the whole family to the right level, you are not eligable for extended support.
Therefore Oracle MUST provide information about what they call a family. In other words, I have a license for Payroll, so Oracle should be able to tell me to which family it belongs. And secondly, Oracle should be able to tell me which patches I need to apply for that family (I guess that's what the patch wizzard is for?).

Hello,
This is great info on the blog, is there any similar/updated blog which will include naming conventions for Delta Patches and RPC patches.
Is there any difference between recommended patch LIST and recommended patch COLLECTION.

The DBA has to go through one more step...namely research on metalink to first do the translation into patch numbers

R12.AD.B.delta.3 - Patch 9239089

R12.ATG_PF.B.delta.3 - Patch 8919491

R12.HR_PF.B.DELTA.5 - Patch 13418800

and then go to his system and query to find if the pre-requisites are applied.

I feel that Oracle should have a Quality assurance step where they ensure that Patch numbers are also provided in all patch readme documents and also the same policy should be adopted in all future documentations...!!!

I would appreciate if this was brought to the attention of ORACLE and this was implemented...!!